Denver keep rolling

The Denver Nuggets are still refusing to slow down. On Tuesday night, they beat the Utah Jazz 130-117 on the road and stretched their winning streak to seven games, the sort of run that makes a team look very well timed for the stretch run. Fancy that.

That streak, of course, would be hard to imagine without their two stars, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, who once again did most of the heavy lifting.

Jokic keeps stacking history

Jokic recorded yet another triple-double, finishing with 15 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists. It was his 196th career triple-double, leaving him four short of 200. If he gets there, he would become the only player to hit that mark alongside Russell Westbrook.

He is also in position to reach another milestone that Westbrook has already secured: this is officially the second straight season in which the Denver center is set to finish averaging double figures in points, assists and rebounds. Westbrook did it with the Thunder, and did so for three consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019, which is a nice reminder that history tends to arrive in installments.

Jokic is also closing in on something no one has done before. He is on pace to finish a season as the league leader in both rebounds and assists, a combination that has never happened in NBA history. As if that were not enough, he is putting up better numbers than in the last season when he won MVP, with figures cited at 27.7 points, 13 rebounds and 18.8 assists, compared with 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds and 9 assists in that award-winning campaign nearly two years ago.

Murray lights up from deep

The other major Denver headline belonged to Murray, who delivered one of his sharper scoring nights of the season. He finished with 37 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 37 minutes and 15 seconds, with 30 of those points coming from beyond the arc. He shot 10-for-16 from three-point range.

That performance moved Murray into a small bit of franchise history. He joined JR Smith as the second player in Nuggets history to make 10 or more threes in multiple games.

With the win, Denver improved to 49-28, clinched a playoff berth, and kept pressure on the Lakers in the race for third place in the West. Not a bad way to spend a night in Utah.